Sunday, December 13, 2009

Last year the LAFCA (one of the twin titans of critics groups, the other being their east coast rivals the NYFCC who announce tomorrow) made some fine choices last year, a best picture win for WALL•E and a smart off-mainstream choice for production design given to the brilliant Mark Friedberg on Synecdoche, New York. Here's what they had to say this year... there's something for everyone.

PictureThe Hurt Locker[ru: Up in the Air]DirectorBigelow, The Hurt Locker[ru: Haneke, The White Ribbon]ActressYolande Moreau, Séraphine[ru: Carey Mulligan, An Education]

Generally there's one acting category wherein the LAFCA will not stick to the status quo. And here it is. She also won the César in France.

Screenplay Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner for Up in the Air[ru: Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche for In the Loop]Production Design Philip Ivey for District 9 [ru: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg, Avatar]Cinematography Christian Berger for The White Ribbon [ru: Barry Ackroyd for The Hurt Locker]Foreign Film Summer Hours [ru: The White Ribbon]Documentary (tie)The Cove and The Beaches of AgnesMusic/Score T-Bone Burnett and Stephen Bruton forCrazy Heart [ru: Alexandre Desplat for Fantastic Mr. Fox. Strange that this wasn't a multiple film prize since he also scored CocoAvant Chanel and Chéri this year]Experimental Film C.W. Winter and Anders Edstrom for The AnchorageCareer Achievement Jean-Paul Belmondo

How do you think the LAFCA did this year? Can you also get behind these "best" decisions? Where do you disagree most?

Strange Days (1995) which he produced. They had divorced four years earlier in 1991 after three years of marriage.

The NYFCO also announced today. That's the New York Film Critics Online... I wish their call letters were less confusing because I've seen people mistake them for the NYFCC in the past and that ain't right. Anyway my girl Katey is part of the NYFCO so I have to respect. The online critics went with James Cameron's Avatar for Best Picture and Kathryn Bigelow for Best Director for The Hurt Locker. This once again underlines my year-long hope for an ex-spouse battle come Oscar time. I've been a fan of Bigelow and Cameron, separately and together for 20+ years now. So it's nice to see them enjoy a good year simultaneously. The big winner, if you're into counting, was Inglourious Basterds which has taken 3 prizes so far (Supporting Actor, Screenplay and Cinematography) You can see rest of their prizes here...*

27 comments:

So the LA critics watch foreign films ... and they still haven't seen Tilda Swinton in Julia. I'm very close to not giving a damn about any lists any more, except myself , as narcissistic as this might sound.

I really love the relationship that Kathryn Bigelow and James Cameron have had outside their divorce.

But I have a feeling that tabloids and a bunch of other newspapers will have it be CAMERON VS. BIGELOW or battle of the Hollywood exes, when in reality they actually support each other...Cameron was at the LA premiere of THL with his wife over the summer.

For those of you interested in the behind-the-scenes machinations, Peter Capaldi and Woody Harrelson were both strong showers in the Supporting Actor category, and the Screenplay Category was pretty close between A Serious Man, In the Loop and Inglourious Basterds (the winner).

The Meryl vs. Tilda debate was heartbreaking for me and a handful of other Swinton defenders in my corner of the room. I don't know for a fact that the people who voted for Meryl hadn't seen Julia, but it's impossible to imagine voting against Tilda having seen that movie.

Another interesting tidbit: it was basically a dead heat between Oren Moverman, Marc Webb and Neill Blomkamp for Debut Director-- any of the three could have won with a vote or two changed.

And finally: it came down to Cameron vs. Bigelow in a third-round vote for director. Hilarious!

Thanks for the information, Katey. I admit that I was a little disappointed that the three awards groups today awarded both Christoph Waltz and Mo'Nique. Nothing against them because Nathaniel is right that if there has to be a sweep, it's nice that they're actually deserving of it, but I guess with three awards coming in right after the other today, the awards just sort of blended together. So it's nice to see that some other names were in the mix too.

Desplat also scored New Moon this year and it's actually one of his better scores. Someday the Oscars will align with Desplat and he will win. He really is the heir to Georges Delerue and it's probably no coincidence that the soundtrack to Fantastic Mr. Fox contains two pieces by Delerue from Truffaut films.

I don't know, The Hurt Locker is becoming such an obvious Best Picture choice this year, and it's far from the only "best" this year.

I'm so happy that The Hurt Locker is doing so well in these awards. I really hope it wins best picture. Also, I haven't seen Moreau's film but I am glad that they chose her because at least a performance I have never heard about becomes something I want to see.

Am I the only person who has noticed that consensus among awards groups has grown increasingly more common? I feel like in the '70s and even in the '80s and '90s there was more diversity in what actors and which films critics felt were worthy of attention. I also feel like, at least in the '70s, it was possible for more obscure films and films from major international directors to win Best Picture. Is this just in my head? Or have critics just grown lazier or less aware that there's more out there than the December glut and occasional summer hit?

david s-- that's definitely true. The poison is the need to "predict". I always feel weird about this because I feel like I'm part of the problem even if only accidentally. I've always made it absolutely clear that prediction and preference should never be confused for one another ... but they get blurred a lot these days because i think people are lazy. They get so used to what's considered worthwhile that they don't really stop to think about what IS.

Am I the only person who has noticed that consensus among awards groups has grown increasingly more common? I feel like in the '70s and even in the '80s and '90s there was more diversity in what actors and which films critics felt were worthy of attention. I also feel like, at least in the '70s, it was possible for more obscure films and films from major international directors to win Best Picture. Is this just in my head? Or have critics just grown lazier or less aware that there's more out there than the December glut and occasional summer hit?

I'm glad that other people have noticed this problem, and that it wasn't just something that I was imagining. It just seems like this decade, it's gotten increasingly worse on sweeps going to one person/film who is the frontrunner for the Oscar.

Again not to take away from the movies or people that do sweep, since they usually did do a fine job, but I think that there's other worthy candidates out there that could also get a mention instead of a single movie/person having to sweep for some reason.

Has the "lock" (and eventual win) for the Best Supporting Actor category always been for the villain? I can't think of any other category in recent memory where people have consistently declared so far in advance the winner, and each time for similar type of role. (Not that the actual characters are similar.)